Masks In Paul Laurence Dunbar's They Wear The Mask

In “We Wear the Mask”, Paul Laurence Dunbar uses many descriptions to paint a picture of a mask we wear to cover up parts of our lives. Each of us wears our own mask, one that we believe can hide our true feelings, insecurities and our worst sufferings. We all use our masks differently in a sense that filters our lives for the better. In the title, Dunbar uses “We” underlying the meaning that everyone (him included) wears their own mask. Our masks are noticed every day and we use this disguise to get us through whatever it is were dealing with. He uses the line “It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes” as figurative language. Our eyes are somewhat hidden and the mask does not allow us to see clearly. Some believe that we cannot be seen by others, which leads to hiding ourselves and sometimes entire events in our lives. We find ourselves lying. In the line quoted above, we understand that our cheeks are hidden as well. Our cheeks reveal our faces becoming red out of embarrassment or feeling flushed through anger. They …show more content…
As I am reading the poem, I can’t help but notice the pattern it has to it. This rhythmic meter in the poem is known as iambic tetrameter. This pattern contains stressed and unstressed syllables. Each pair is occurring four times in each line, which equal out to eight syllables. “We Wear the Mask” is known as a rondeau poem. This means that it may have up to ten to fifteen lines with three stanzas. The title is known as the refrain, which is the reoccurring phrase or verse somewhere in the poem. Another element used is enjambment in several lines, which is lines that are connected without any interruption. “We Wear the Mask is considered a lyrical poem with consonance and alliteration. The alliterations show up in lines 5 with “mouth” and “myriad” and also in line 11 with “thee” and “tortured”. He has a few lines that rhyme which makes it flow smoother when reading the